McLaren CEO Zak Brown delivered a surprising statement regarding his former archrival and former Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner.

While what the American said was surprising given his history with Horner, it was a politically correct statement during a media session in Woking earlier this week where GrandPrix247 was present.

Horner was fired from his role at Red Bull Racing following the 2025 British Grand Prix due to poor team performance and was replaced by Laurent Mekies.

Since then, Horner, who survived a sexting scandal involving a female Red Bull Racing employee in 2024, was linked with several teams on the grid starting from Ferrari and then Aston Martin, while finally he has been tipped to buy a stake in Alpine through a consortium he is leading.

Brown has had his fair share of squabbles with Horner over the years, but when asked about how he felt about the Briton making a Formula 1 comeback, he responded: “Christian was a great personality for the sport.

"Sport always has great personalities; they come and go. It'd be great to have Christian back in the sport. He's a great operator. His track record speaks for itself.

“I'd rather have 10 weak team principals, but that's not going to happen anytime soon, and there's huge talent that's coming up all the time," he added. "There's been a lot of team principal moves here in the last two to three years, but it would be great to have him back in the sport.

"Given his passion for the sport and his age, I'd be shocked if he wasn't back in the sport, whether it was at Alpine or somewhere else," Brown concluded.

Horner did not hide his intent to return to F1 recently, saying that he felt he still had unfinished business in the sport. However, he did claim his life doesn't hang on that.